February 24, 2012
World Bank Launches Global Partnerships for the Oceans
BY: Michael Gardner
Today the World Bank announced a new international alliance called the Global Partnerships for the Oceans and we are excited to announce our involvement!
It’s a collaborative partnership in every sense with many of the world’s top conservation organizations, private interests and the World Bank pooling their resources and energies to help tackle the toughest issues facing our oceans like overfishing, marine degradation and habitat loss.
Oceana understands the need to protect our oceans for their beauty and splendor, but we also recognize that there’s more at stake here. It’s not just about the environment. It’s also about the millions of people who rely on the oceans to keep them healthy and well fed—and the millions more who will rely on them in the future.
Oceana’s CEO Andy Sharpless said it best: “This global partnership couldn’t come at a better time. At this moment we’re looking at two diverging lines: world population, on a steady ascent, and global fish catch, on a steady decline. If we reverse this latter trend with better fisheries management, we could have enough wild seafood to feed the 9 billion people projected to live on our planet in 2050. No longer is this issue solely about ocean conservation – it’s also about humanity and saving the oceans in order to feed the world.”
We’re advocating for better ocean management to meet this challenge. By ensuring our oceans are productive enough to feed a growing population we’ll improve biodiversity and strengthen key habitats in the process, which will make the oceans healthier, too.
Oceana’s model for saving the oceans is just one of many. But that’s what makes this partnership so great. We’re uniting conservationists from all corners, public and private. It’s the complementary collaboration that makes this alliance so strong and well rounded.
The news of the alliance was first announced today at the World Oceans Summit in Singapore, which brought together many of the world’s leaders in ocean conservation including our very own CEO Andy Sharpless.